Has PTV started pushing RAW’s agenda?

— State television starts airing Indian movie songs
— National Television is barred officially to promote Indian culture
— India maintains complete ban on telecast of any Pakistani TV Channel including PTV across India

ISLAMABAD—While the Associated Press of Pakistan, the APP, is still probing as to how a press release, defending Indian Forces in Held Kashmir was released from the desks of state-run news agency, the last week, now the State-run television the Pakistan Television (PTV) appears to be pushing the agenda of the Indian government and its intelligence agency the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) as the entertainment wing of the States television the PTV Home has initiated airing the songs of Indian movies.

According to the details, the PTV Home, on Sunday, in its morning transmission’s program, Mashwara Muft (the said program was repeated on Monday, without any further editing), invited an Indian singer cum actress of Pakistani origin Salma Agha. During the program, an audience was also invited and live telephone calls were also taken. However, people who switched on their Television sets to PTV Home were shocked to see that Salma Agha was asked by the hosts to sing a rather vulgar song from an Indian movie, Kasam Paida Karnay Walay Kee. The host asked Salma Agha to sing the song Yeh Raat main jo Maza hai of the said movie and the viewers were informed properly that the song was from which Indian movie and was composed by which Indian music composer and after that, even before the singer started singing the said Indian song, the host herself started dancing to the tunes of the said song.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that there is crystal clear policy of the government of Pakistan that no State organization is allowed to promote the culture of India as it is in negation with Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Two-Nations Theory through which Pakistan was created. These findings reveal the State organizations like the PTV are completely barred from airing any Indian movie, Indian drama or any political or non political program that depicts the Indian culture or Indian government’s propaganda. During the last 60 years or so, PTV has never aired any Indian cultural program or Indian movie or song, following the clear standing policies of the government and constitutional obligations. The PTV was only allowed to air any Indian program under the SAARC Cultural Exchange Program and that too under an agreement while airing Indian movies dramas or movie songs were not allowed even under the SAARC Cultural Exchange agreement.

On the other side, the Indian government is maintaining an even stricter policy towards airing of Pakistani movies, dramas, movie songs or any program, depicting Pakistani culture. The Indian government, running a few extra miles in this direction, has imposed a very strict ban on all the cable operators regarding airing of any material of even any of Pakistan’s private television channels under any circumstances. Though many of Pakistani private television channels take immense pride in airing a variety of Indian movies, dramas and even TV commercials, yet India has never shown any relaxation in this direction.

The Daily Mail’s findings further indicate that despite clear instructions of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA), restricting airing of Indian Television Channels by cable operators, many Indian entertainment channels continue to be shown by cable operators all across Pakistan with PEMRA observing the situation with one eye shut, taking no action at all while the private television channels keep airing Indian cultural shows and movies without any problem.

The Daily Mail’s findings reveal that it has been a very old agenda of Indian government and India’s top intelligence agency to grip Pakistanis through a cultural invasion. The plan started with launching of certain ON DEMAND, movie music programs by India’s state run Radio stations including Aakashvani and All India Radio, through fake demands while on the other hand, RAW continued to utilize India’s State Television the Door Darshan. Through these radio and television programs, Pakistanis were attracted to hear and watch Indian songs and movies as well as other showbiz related programs while later many private Television Channels in India were created through RAW’s funding.

The Daily Mail’s findings disclose that after the mushroom growth of private News and Entertainment Television Channels in Pakistan, following the old official agenda, RAW ensured that none of these Pakistani Television channels should be aired anywhere in India. Before the arrival of Cable Networks, RAW arranged the jamming of Pakistani Channels that were seen in India through dish antennas while after the cable networks were introduced, the Pakistani channels kept completely off the air by cable operators under strict instructions of RAW.

These findings also reveal that after finalizing arrangements of barring viewing of Pakistani Television channels in India, RAW turned its neck toward invading Pakistan spreading Indian culture through Pakistani Cable Operators and incumbent and immature Television channels in the private sector as it was not possible to do it in the Public sector for RAW. Following the stand ing policy, RAW started wooing Pakistani cable operators as well as Pakistani private Television channels through certain covered arrangements. The RAW gained a very rapid success in this direction and soon Pakistani television sets were flooded with Indian movies, Indian songs, Indian dramas and what not.

This situation, that was completely in negation of the Two Nations Theory and the fundaments of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, forced TV viewers all over the country started refraining from these TV Channels and preferred to switching back to State-run TV, the PTV, considering to be the custodian of country’s cultural and social values and had emerged as a family channel. People even started banning the viewing of any other than PTV by their children, considering the India’s cultural invasion through cable and private channels as a massive blow to Pakistan’s solidarity and cultural norms and values.

The Daily Mail’s findings indicate that RAW continued to target PTV to get its agenda pushed through PTV but failed every time. However it seems that some how the RAW has gained some sort of success as finally the State-run Television that operates under the guidance and patronage of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with federal secretary for Information and Broadcasting being the Chairman of the PTV, has started airing the Indian movies’ songs, which could be described only as the first step in this direction and it is feared that soon one would be seeing Indian movies and dramas on PTV if the situation goes like it is at the moment. He most alarming factor during the whole episode is that nobody from any quarters concerned of the PTV or the ministry the PTV comes under, monitored or checked the airing of Indian movie song on PTV and the program went unchanged in the repeat transmission after more than 24 hours of the airing of the original transmission.